Life In 19x19

Hi everyone, Rasmus here, one of the developers

@EdLee: Thanks for making the topic, I'll try to check back here frequently to answer questions and see what all of you have to say about it. We are working on fullscreen mode, your design actually looks similar to what we had in mind.

@oren: What don't you like about GoPanda2? There won't be any features added or any other major updates to GoPanda1 in the near future, I am afraid. So you better help us fix the new one!

@mw42, Charlie: I understand the sentiment. Believe me, its not the only awkward solution in the current setup We are definitely shooting for a web-only client, although there probably will be an installable version too, to allow for offline game editing and the likes.

@daal: Interesting, never noticed that. I took the pictures myself, so I can assure you it's the same light source. Will try if replacing the bowl looks better, but as you can imagine its not really at the top of the priorities list.

@bleep: Its also on the todo list. In the meantime, you can use net social plaza to download your games: http://my.pandanet.co.jp/index-e.htm . Ask me, if you need help navigating it.

@ez4u: Guest logins are not supported atm, because a whole bunch of stuff works differently or not at all, and we want people to make an account anyway. When the web only client works, we might offer an option to observe games from the website directly without registering.

So, if you have questions about the client you can either post them here or mail to us at gopanda2@pandanet-igs.com. We appreciate every feature request, bug report and generally all feedback!
Thanks for trying it, we'll work on making it a really cool client to use.

I think my main issue is that GoPanda original is easy to use and fairly quick. GoPanda 2 is much slower. Can I even open multiple games on GoPanda 2?

I've used IGS for a fairly long time with a bunch of different clients and this is the first that doesn't leave me a console.

I can open multiple games in tabs, but I don't see how I can watch both at the same time.

Graphically, I would prefer the top bar go away to make more room, no bowls, and a simpler looking board.

I've used Panda Egg client a bunch, and I like some parts of it. I prefer the original GoPanda to the new one. It just looks a bit cleaner to me.

oren wrote:Graphically...no bowls, and a simpler looking board.
I prefer the original GoPanda to the new one. It just looks a bit cleaner to me.

I didn't see the original GoPanda (could someone post some screenshots of it?),
but it's difficult to imagine a design that's cleaner and more beautiful than the current GoPanda 2.

I think the current board, stones, bowls, and lids are absolutely BEAUTIFUL --
but, the bowls and lids can be enabled or disabled with a simple option,
so people who don't like them can hide them as an option.

rbuchmann wrote:...

@bleep: Its also on the todo list. In the meantime, you can use net social plaza to download your games: http://my.pandanet.co.jp/index-e.htm . Ask me, if you need help navigating it.
...

Great, thanks. Just tried it, and no problems.

I got to meet Rasmus and Erik while in Japan a bit over a month ago. They really are cool dudes and want to make everything way better. This was of course where I figured out that my list of wants for GoPanda2 was very similar to their list.

Note: as a employee of Pandanet I heartily hope everyone enjoys and continues to play on pandanet

rbuchmann wrote:Hi everyone, Rasmus here, one of the developers

...In the meantime, you can use net social plaza to download your games: http://my.pandanet.co.jp/index-e.htm . Ask me, if you need help navigating it.

This works, sort of. But the games are in .ugi format rather than .sgf. And the filenames look like random strings of characters. These drawbacks make saving games from the web not very appealing.

In the past, I used the "automail" setting to get IGS to email me a copy of each game that I played. This worked well - the files were in SGF format, and the filenames were reasonable. What's strange is this seems to have stopped working now. The last few games that I played on IGS did not get mailed to me.

So I have two questions:
1. Can we get automail to work again?
2. Can the web archive provide games in SGF format with friendlier names, just like automail has always done?

Thanks!

EricBackus wrote:In the past, I used the "automail" setting to get IGS to email me a copy of each game that I played. This worked well - the files were in SGF format, and the filenames were reasonable. What's strange is this seems to have stopped working now. The last few games that I played on IGS did not get mailed to me.

So I have two questions:
1. Can we get automail to work again?
2. Can the web archive provide games in SGF format with friendlier names, just like automail has always done?

Thanks!

I confirm that it's not working anymore. I always used it to have a copy of the Pandanet European Go Team Championship games (League C Manager) in case someone had complaints about the results, but it stopped working between dec 4th and dec 11th.

oren wrote:I've used IGS for a fairly long time with a bunch of different clients and this is the first that doesn't leave me a console.

While this is certainly a valid criticism...on the other hand I've used quite a few IGS clients, and this is one of the first I've used that didn't have the first thing that pops up in your face upon sign on be a console, which I found to be a pleasant change (and one I think will help out new users with IGS). A console is a nice thing to have though if you are used to it, and I'm glad to see it's on their "coming soon" list of features.

idk about an automail feature, but is there an autosave feature like there was with pandago1?

Hi Guys,

an update, and some sneak peeks at the next version. First of all the best news: We got rid of Java, hooray
Also in the next version:
- a native package for all major operating systems
- Works like a "traditional" client, without the local webserver nonsense and in its own window
- Redid some resource intensive parts as well, such as the game and player list, so the client should run even smoother.
(Coincidentally, the technology switch we are doing also brings the web-only client closer to becoming a reality.)

Settling on this technology will also make it easier for us to focus on doing some of the remaining "non web" stuff, like the much requested autosave feature.
I am honestly surprised that quite a few people miss the console! We thought it would be time to move past ASCII squirrels
Can I ask you what you are doing with it? Or are you just fans of a commandline interface?
I know I am for my linux, but writing IGS protocol by hand...? Come on...

We will probably post a preview link here, and you could do us a great favor if you gave it a try and told us how it worked out. We definitely need more testers!
I'll post a more complete changelist when we get closer to releasing the testable version.

Thanks!

rbuchmann wrote:
I am honestly surprised that quite a few people miss the console! We thought it would be time to move past ASCII squirrels
Can I ask you what you are doing with it? Or are you just fans of a commandline interface?

its been a long time since I've actually used IGS, but as I recall, you can only setup an Ing Rules games using the console: tmatch

There are probably others that I don't recall.

And the commands from the console don't change, whereas each new client keeps moving the buttons, or their appearance (or leaves them off altogether), such that I have to re-learn how to use the client -- or I can simply use what I already know and am familiar with

I don't play on IGS often enough to remember terminal commands, but when gopanda misbehaved it was useful. A few times it wasn't possible to set an even game when ranks are not equal (or we couldn't figure out). Once nobody could enter the tournament room by clicking. Both situations it was fine through terminal. So I don't really want to use the terminal but when there is something strange going on it can be a saver.

Is there a way to create/join channels in GoPanda2.

Not being able to open multiple games in different windows will be very annoying when the AGA city league gets started.

oren wrote:Not being able to open multiple games in different windows will be very annoying when the AGA city league gets started.

oh yeah, especially for a tournament director

I have been on IGS for a long time.. since the hellspark days. I have been very active in multiple ways over the years.

Personally, I always thought winigc was the best client going. I even paid for the licensed version of it, but the writer of the app stopped developing it.

A few of the things I noticed that would be nice to include. There is a trail command that you can not access, there is no way to access channels to talk to others, you can no manage friends and sort the user list by them. If there was access to the terminal a person could at least use these commands while the client was in development.

Another thing for me is that IGS holds a big social aspect and with the new client, that is limited. It is just play the game and would not keep me interested in returning if this was the only client to be used.